Are You Struggling With Customer/ISO Audits? 3 Ways to Get Unstuck
Do you repeatedly score lower than you would like on customer or ISO audits? Do the same things generally trip you up when customers evaluate your quality system? Read below to see 3 things you can do to eliminate the most common causes of audit issues.
- K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Steve). Many company’s quality systems have grown into a huge, overly complicated mess that is neither user friendly nor intuitive. The reason this happens is that with every audit finding, things get added to the system to react to discrete discrepancies instead of looking at how the system failed. Forms, procedures and activities are often added for a specific customer as a Band-Aid when a minor improvement to the existing procedure would permanently solve the issue for all customers.
- Worst Case = Best Results. Setting up your quality system to handle the “worst case scenario” you will see from your ISO auditors or customers will eliminate the special processes that are often put in place for specific customers, situations, etc. Non-standard processes will all but guarantee embarrassing execution trip-ups during audits and visits.
- Internal Audits. Developing a robust internal auditing system is one of the best ways to maintain a consistent, effective quality system. It is also a key tool for minimizing (or eliminating) undesirable findings during an external (customer or ISO) audit. With a solid program and skilled staff, an external audit should not yield any surprises.